Hello, I am a junior who wants to go to UofM (major in Computer Science).
My father finished UofM electrical engineering graduate school (Ph.D), and my 5 cousins went the undergraduate school there. So I was just wondering how do these factors affect the admission?
As a junior, I am taking 3 APs (AP Cal BC, APUSH, AP CS) & 1 Honor, and I am going to take 2 APs (AP Chem & Physics C) + 1 College course thru online (Multivariable Calc) + 1 Honor in senior year.
I have average GPA (3.83 out of 4.0; weighted: 4.20) with SAT 1780 (I am an ESL student, so it is really hard to get good score in reading & writing section; it was my first test, and I am definitely going to take it again this fall).
ljy069, legacy matters very little. Your father having gone to Michigan will be considered, but not heavily. Where your cousins went to college is completely irrelevant. No university asks about where your cousins went to college, nor do they care.
As for your SAT, it is way too low. International students who speak English as a second language as still expected to get better than a 600 in CR and over 600 in W. Your total needs to be at least 1900 to have a serious chance of admission.
@Alexandre Thank you for your comment. Yes, I agree that my SAT is so low. I got R: 500 / M: 660 / W: 620 (E: 8). Especially my math score was way lower than what I usually get, which is usually above 750. During the SAT, I had panic attack when I saw 2016 new SAT style writing dummy section. I never heard about dummy section, so I had no idea what I should do in that section. After that section, I really screwed up everything, so I expected my SAT score will be very low. Since I have summer vacation left, I think I can make it to above 2000…(hopefully…)
Can I ask one more question? I was planning to go back to my country and work very hard on my SAT & do internship in local university, which is a prestigious school in my country but unpopular to American. However, I got an opportunity to work in a UCLA summer research program that is very competitive & 8 weeks program, so if I choose to do the UCLA program, I can be in my country for only 3 weeks, and I will loose my opportunity to score higher in SAT because SAT program in my country is way better than here… So I am hesitating between 1) better SAT score than option 2 + internship in unpopular (to Americans) university OR 2) lower SAT score than option 1 + great & competitive summer research internship program in UCLA. Could you give me any advice which one would be better…? If I choose option 1, I think I can raise my SAT score to at least 2000.
Legacy does help but it would not do miracle by itself. I do know an in state girl with legacy like you accepted into CoE at EA with ACT 28 and GPA 3.9+ last year though. Also, although you may report any relative as legacy on the UMich CommonApp supplement, I don’t think second cousin matter at all.